Broken/Special:Badtitle/NS100:JamesMoore/England just experienced it's warmest April for 350 years!
Yes you read it right. England (that's England, Europe for you foreigners) has just experienced it's warmest April since records began for that country 350 years ago. I kid you not. Not only that, it's the warmest UK average for 100 years when records began for the UK as whole. To put 350 years into context, 1658 was the year that Oliver Cromwell died. He was the parliamentarian (a "roundhead") that led the overthrow of the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republic! That happened 38 years after the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England for Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 to put it into perspective for you Yanks!
Why is it happening? What does this mean? I don't completely understand the physics behind it but there is a clue in the article. It says "The reason for the warm spring sunshine has been the persistence of high pressure systems dominating the weather pattern. These highs have been anchored across, or just to the east, of the UK. As a result, southeasterly winds have brought the warm air up from the near continent and at times from as far away as the Sahara." So the position of some high pressure area has now changed this April, possibly for the first time 350 years? What is causing the new positioning of this high pressure system? I don't know is the honest answer. Do you? It's obvious though, that the planetary weather system is changing and causing greater grief for mankind globally. New weather and other nature-related record-highs are being set over and over. And yet there are still those who couldn't care less...do you care? What are you doing about it? What are you going to do about it? Does it affect you? Will it affect you in your next life? I think the answer to the last question is that it definitely will affect you in this life and the next. That's my personal opinion.
Heatwave sees warmest UK April for more than 100 years
Last month was the UK's warmest April on record, the Met Office has said.
The records, which go back more than 100 years, show much of the UK experienced temperatures 3 to 5C warmer than is normal for April.
It was also the 11th driest month, with on average half the usual rainfall.
But there was also great variation in the amount of rain. Parts of north-west Scotland saw about 110% of normal April rainfall, while parts of south-east England saw less than 10% of normal.
The UK average temperature was 10.7C, exceeding the previous warmest April on record of 10.2C in 2007.
Following a drier-than-average winter, the dry April followed a dry March which saw less than half of the normal rainfall falling across the UK.
High pressure
A BBC Weather Centre spokesman said: "The UK-wide records began in 1910, but the central England temperature series goes back to 1659, making it the warmest April here for over 350 years."
He added: "The reason for the warm spring sunshine has been the persistence of high pressure systems dominating the weather pattern.
"These highs have been anchored across, or just to the east, of the UK. As a result, southeasterly winds have brought the warm air up from the near continent and at times from as far away as the Sahara.
"High pressure acts like a block to the weather pattern. It prevents the more typical westerly winds coming in from the Atlantic Ocean and the associated rain bearing weather fronts." Template:Wl-publish: 2011-05-03 22:42:42 +0100
